Century in Retrospective Archives

March 20, 2007

Jeff R.: Tiresais' Legion

By 2030 doctors could grow cloned limbs and body parts matching anyone's DNAs, and had nanosurgical techniques to seamlessly graft them on. But it wasn't until the mid '50s, when a generation had grown up with these possibilities, that they started to be used electively.

The first major fad was in 'package enhancements'; men unsatisfied with what they were born with sporting equipment of sizes and designs previously exclusive to sex toys.

The second, more lasting trend, was 'temping', whose adherents asserted that they became better lovers and better people in general by spending one year in the other gender.

April 10, 2007

Jeff R.: Aoide, Melete, and Mneme

Originally, there weren't nine muses, but three: Voice, Practice, and Memory. Humanity eventually gained two of these in abundance. Medical and mechanical assistance made perfect memory, of not just one's own life but all humanity's culture. Practice was easy, with ever-growing amounts of lesiure time availible along with virtual audiences and critics. That left only Voice.

Attempts were made to engineer that in, but without success. None of the artistic-talent genmods really worked (although this didn't stop parents from spending fortunes on them.) So while every would-be artist was vaulted to the upper bounds of mediocrity, genius remained surpassingly rare.

May 4, 2009

Jeff R.:Iupeter Tonnans Caecusque

In 2041, Jupiter's Great Red Spot, having shrunk about ten percent, reversed the trend and began to re-expand. This development was short-lived, though: in 2043, the storm's eye had begun a collapse that would take a month to complete. The storm lost it's regular form and shape, broke up into a multitude of smaller cyclonic and counter cyclonic storms, and by 2045, Jupiter had uninteresting regular bands on its southern face.

Pundits, journalists, and historians found it impossible to resist viewing the fate of the Spot as a metaphor for what was to happen to China in the next decade.